Terms & Conditions

When ordering from Roach Crossing, you agree to abide by the below terms and outlining conditions.

(Updated 3/4/2020)

Conditions:

When your order request has been received, I will issue a price quote including shipping costs.

Payment can be done via Paypal, check, or money order. If any of these do not explicitly work for you, we can discuss potential alternatives. I will not ship until payment has been received.

Shipping is generally done on Mondays or Tuesdays, or on the specified and agreed upon ship date. Though I do have a maintenance schedule and additional seasonal work, working with live animals offers something different daily and things can come up. If there are changes to the shipping date, I will notify you as soon as possible.

I ship via United States Postal Service. The default shipping is priority mail, which generally takes 2-4 days. During the winter (due to cold temperatures), I will usually ship via express mail. Although guaranteed overnight to many locations, this is not always the case, and the implications of this can be discussed beforehand. If you would like to upgrade from priority mail to express mail for any reason, please let me know and your shipping cost will be adjusted accordingly.

During cold conditions I will include a 48-72 heat pack with the order, as well as insulation. The cost of the heat pack alone will be added to the total cost.

If you unbox your order and most of the organisms have perished, contact me within 24 hours. I may request photographic evidence of the box and packaging. If 50% or more of one or more species arrives dead, and if these constitute 50% or more of the total species sent, I will re-send the order as soon as possible for free (alternatively, I can issue a refund for the order) if the order was sent by a mutually agreed upon shipping service (priority, express, etc). If all but one or two species arrive alive, I may offer to replace the perished species for just the price of shipping.

I will guarantee live arrival of invertebrates open unboxing under the scope of the above definition and claim no responsibility for invertebrate deaths resulting from subsequent incorrect housing or care. I will, however, discuss appropriate care and solutions to common husbandry problems if you need assistance.

If you are unhappy or unsatisfied with your order, or if you have any questions relating to care and maintenance, do not hesitate to ask me! I love questions and am always eager to help. :)

***A note on culture purity. I grow many of my clean-up crews and isopods in-situ with my roaches and other invertebrates. Occasionally, there may be additional organisms shipped with cultures (ex, isopods with large roaches, springtails with various roach species, discarded roach oothecae with dwarf white isopods, etc). Though I try my best to ensure I ship only what has been ordered, hitchhikers do happen, and are very likely with some species. If you have a problem with this, please notify me beforehand; to date I have not had any complaints but as I have expanded my clean-up crews into more cultures, I feel this necessary to mention. In general, if it has been shipped with your order, it is completely safe for you and your invertebrates.
As for springtails, due to their size and inconspicuous nature there is occasional mixing of different varieties (though I do strive to maintain independent, pure cultures of each variety.) I will guarantee springtails cultures to be 90% pure. At present (3/4/2020), all springtail cultures currently maintained at Roach Crossing except Cyphoderus similis are 99.0% pure.

(Updated 3/4/2020)

Terms:

Nymph: The immature state of an insect that undergoes incomplete metamorphosis.

Larva(e):The immature state of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis

Instar: A measure of the development stage in insects. First instar (or L1) is the stage at birth; subsequently, the second instar (or L2) is the next stage achieved when the insect molts for the first time.

Pupa(e): The intermediate development stage in insects that undergo complete metamorphosis which lies between the last larval instar and the adult stage.

Cocoon: A casing created by some insects (primarily those that undergo complete metamorphosis) to protect the pupal (or, in others, the resting) stage. With respect to this site, it also includes the pupa contained within.

Adult: An organism that is sexually mature.

Mixed (count): A mixture of nymphs and adults of the species listed. If specified, it will be a mixture of just nymphs of various sizes, or just larvae of various sizes. In a mixed count, roughly 1/3 of the individuals will be small, 1/3 medium, and 1/3 large immatures with adult pairs being added to the overall number. For non-insect invertebrates, a mixed count will contain the above ratio but with adults being included in the “1/3 large” portion of the aforementioned count. If the above 1-1-1 ratio is not available, I will substitute additional individuals to compensate; for example, if a 15 mixed count is ordered and precisely 15 mixed individuals in the aforementioned ratio are not available, then either an appropriately corresponding number of large (10), medium (15) or small (20) individuals will be sent instead. If “mixed” is used to refer to an individual (as in, “Mixed nymphs: $2/each”), the specimens sent will be of any size dependent on what is currently in my colony.

Small nymph/larva: An individual insect that is approximately 1/3 grown.

Medium nymph/larva: An individual insect that is approximately 2/3 grown.

Large nymph/larvae: An individual insect that is approximately 3/3 grown but is not yet an adult.

Large pair: A male/female pair of insects that may include two large nymphs, one large nymph and one adult, or two adults.

Starter colony: The smallest quantity of individuals recommended by Roach Crossing to start a colony after taking into consideration factors such as preservation of genetic diversity, colony establishment time, and the Allee effect.